The KPFA Evening News, Weekdays – April 21, 2005

The House of Representatives passes a far-ranging energy bill that opens an Alaska Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and shields makers of the gas additive MTBE from environmental lawsuits……it also funnels 12 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies….critics call it a give-away

The U.S. Senate poised to debate the future of the filibuster as the judiciary committee approves two of president Bush’s most controversial judicial nominations, sending them to the floor for an expected confrontation

The first civilian aircraft goes down in the Iraq war as a missile hits a Russian-made helicopter….eleven are killed including six American mercenary bodyguards

Hundreds rally at the state capitol after a March from Fresno to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide…state lawmakers mark the occasion with two pieces of legislation

A new study says California could prevent three million school absences and four-thousand asthma-related hospital admissions each year with stricter air quality standards

And opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA, say they have the votes to kill the pact